Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour
May 3rd - 4th 2025 10:00am to 5:00pm, Rain or Shine
Welcome to the Garden Tour! No ticket is needed—just bring your love of gardens and curiosity for discovery!
This self-guided tour invites you to wander through breathtaking gardens designed by real gardeners. See below for garden locations, photos, and descriptions. You may also find our newspaper print tour guide at our sponsor nurseries, or you can print it out yourself here to plan your route. Each garden is arranged in geographical order, leading you from the northernmost blooms south.
Find the spaces that speak to your soul—if one isn’t quite your style, check out the next! Each garden is unique and promises to inspire. So, grab a fellow plant lover, pack your sense of wonder, and prepare for an unforgettable garden adventure!
01. Anette Hadjimarkos & Diane Higgs
Welcome to the neighborhood known as “The Village”. An eclectic garden with outdoor living areas and much to see!
02. Sonia Savoulian
100-year-old Spanish Revival home with an inviting and colorful palette perfectly suited for our Southern California climate.
03. Mikki Popovich
Experience five different gardens in one that focus on bee, butterfly and hummingbirds.
04. Lori, Dan & Clara Basheda
Wander through a romantic tangle of old-fashioned fragrant cottage favorites inspired by Mary Lou's Nursery.
05. Mike Kirsch
The courtyard garden in this vintage 1920's Spanish 6-plex in old Long Beach is an eclectic mix of just about everything. A MUST SEE Garden!
06. Marietta Malan
This historic 116-year-old Dutch Colonial Revival home has cottage garden with a French country soul!
07. Kye & Elena Osti
A garden retreat composed of succulents and tropical plants, including colorful bromeliads, 40-something pineapple plants & plumerias.
08. Dede & Dwight Warren
Over 50 roses, lavenders, and jasmine perfume the air. This Certified Wildlife Habitat is designed to encourage pollinators, wildlife, and tour participants alike.
09. Ron, Ryan & Martha Heiman
A Certified Wildlife Habitat and an Official Monarch Butterfly Way Station, these gardens include Italian, Drought-Tolerant, Grassy Amphitheater, Tropical, and Fruit Orchard—all in a relaxing place to visit and linger.
10. Todd & Laura Lockwood
She loves to play in the dirt. He can build anything his imagination can think of. And they both can’t pass up a project!
11. Jodi & Scot Daniels
Affectionately dubbed “ScoJo Resort” by friends and family, Scot and Jodi Daniels have been lovingly tending their suburban garden for over twenty years.
12. Karen & Mark McCoy
Inspired by Filoli gardens, this once flat backyard was transformed to encourage discovery and movement throughout the property.
13. Tom & Yolanda Bass
The inspiration for this garden was to create a place to feel like a peaceful retreat. Editor's Note: This charming, MUST SEE garden has something for everyone!
14. Alana Fugnetti
This enchanting garden features a formal front yard with a brick patio, beautifully complemented by California native plantings. Editor's Note: This one is a MUST SEE with a one-of-a-kind upper deck that has to be seen to be believed!
15. Jack & Barbara Brewer
Barbara is an artist who uses a wide variety of plants and succulents to mix color and texture to create a living landscape.
16. Susan & Scott Lund
This warm and elegant garden brings elements of Napa Valley and the Mediterranean countryside together for the ultimate peaceful experience.
17. Lana & David Chang
The entire garden is a little over half an acre and has been divided into several gardens It has been the site of over twenty weddings of friends and family. Worth the drive! This one is a MUST SEE!
18. Steve Velez
Celebrating its 62nd anniversary with you! You will see many specimens of palm, and unusual plants and flowers from around the world. Featured on the television program “Visiting with Huell Howser”.
19. Ken & Theresa Anderson
This cross between Mediterranean and cottage garden styles is designed to welcome birds, bees, butterflies and anything else looking for food, shelter, or just a place to sun themselves.
20. Susan & Dave Datko
Succulents, cactuses, air plants, orchids, bougainvillea, and much more can be found on the sprawling, park-like grounds.
21. Greg & Vicki Brown-Middlesworth
Two 60-foot terraced flower beds are filled with floribunda roses, annuals, and lime, lemon, and blood orange trees. Beautiful outdoor living.
22. Doreen Kushner
This is truly a personal work of art. Every pattern is created with thousands of cuttings individually placed, like the strokes of a brush.
23. Ron & Claudia Bitzer
Bienvenidos! Willkommen! Welcome! to this outdoor paradise with year round edible gardens and a butterfly and hummingbird sanctuary.
24. AJ & Barbara Wilson
Inhale the powerful scent of an abundance of sweet peas that adorn the gardens of this large corner lot.
25. Helen & Denny Bolen
Bolen’s Cottage welcomes you with bright flowers and undulating walks of brick and stone bordered by split-rail fences. Birds and butterflies love this place—Helen and Denny hope you will too!
26. Kathie & Ron Ferree
This three-quarter acre garden features trellises, gazebos, fountains, a pond, a working full-sized waterwheel, and irrefutable horticultural bliss. *MUST SEE!
27. Shannon Silveria-Mohr
Tucked away just a mile from the beach, lies a magical property featuring four gardens bursting with color, flowers, and scents.
28. Kathy Ericksen
Kathy’s garden is her interpretation of an English garden and a rosarian’s delight. It is abundant with critters, vibrant colors, and aromatic scents.
29. Debbie Freeman
Walk out of the big city and enter through a white picket fence and bower arch of pink roses to find yourself in an English garden adorned with hydrangeas, impatiens, daisies, tulips, roses, milkweed, geraniums, and tiger eye.
30. Jennifer & Steve McInteer
This moon garden - which means white flowers only - has a tendency to cheat with a little purple and pink, but still retains its sense of peace and calm.
31. Jerry Edwards
A true garden is never static! For almost 40 years, both the Edwards’ garden and house have been works of love--and angst, frustration, worry, and wonder!
32. Karen & Jim Mittendorf
The Mittendorfs are gardeners at heart and love sharing their passion with family, friends, and other gardeners.
33. Nena Niessen
The style of the garden at this Tudor Revival house is relaxed with the intent to get you to spend some time out in nature.
34. Beth & Kelly Thomas
The Thomas’ welcome you to their 1928 Spanish Revival in the historic Washington Square neighborhood of Santa Ana.
35. Diane & Robert Von Gerichten
Theirs is a free-spirited garden with touches of formality & elegance in artful vignettes, tasteful statuary, antiquities, & custom gazebos.
36. Linda Gartner
A traditional white picket fence frames the large front yard and supports abundant annuals and perennials.
37. Chris Hurley
This is garden is anything but boring and is instead filled with succulents that you may have never seen before
38. Lynda & Darrel Cook
This charming, historic California Bungalow home was built in 1915 and is a part of the historic overlay district in Old Town Tustin.
39. Roselyn & John Dear
The garden was recently showcased on PBS, and was a winner of the 2019 Roger’s Gardens California Friendly Garden contest!
40. Dan & Kathie Wickham
The Wickhams bought their newly built home 38 years ago…and the gardening has never stopped!
41. Elaine Larsen
The music of water surrounds all of the greenery - relax at a sunny spot or a shaded while listening to the soothing sounds of the water.
42. Imee & Hily Barragan
There are over 140 roses, boxwoods, iris', foxgloves, hydrangeas, geraniums, lavenders, and seasonal annuals throughout the garden.
43. Donna & Steve Milazzo
This garden invites you to enter under a graceful arbor covered with Eden roses flanked by a custom fence (she designed/he built) that serves as a backdrop for more plantings that change with the seasons.
44. Peggy & Lance Liimatainen
An oasis full of outdoor living spaces, ponds, colorful flowers, and drought tolerant plants
45. Cindie & Bob Reilly
Welcome to Cindie & Bob’s Americana themed cottage style garden which has three separate garden areas for their green thumbs to dig in.
46. Catherine & Mark Chamberlin
Located in Nellie Gail Ranch, this new to the tour garden sits on a half-acre and rises beautifully up a large hillside.
47. Mary Jane Fletcher
Nestled into Southern Orange County suburbia is a Certified Wildlife Habitat that has been tamed.
48. Colin & Julie Stokes
This is a special place where native plants nestle among water features, sculptures and a truly unique reflexology path.
49. Karen Morgan Newe
This yard is often described as “Zen'' due to a tranquil and calm aesthetic.
